JohnNY123
Level 1 (5 points)

Q: Import DV video from camcorder tape to a single DV file?

I've looked around quite a bit on this forum and can't find an answer to this one...

 

I'm importing DV videotapes from an old Sony camcorder onto my Macbook Pro using iMovie 11.  I have unchecked the iMovie import dialog box that says "Split days into new Events".

 

When I click import in iMovie the video is indeed imported.....but upon looking at my hard disk after the whole tape was imported, iMovie split my import into about 35 separate DV file clips.

 

I don't want all of these individual DV clip files....I just want to do a straight import from the camera tape to hard disk and have one resulting large DV file (which for an hour of DV video will probably be around 17 gig).  If iMovie is going to split my single tape into 35 separate DV files then I'm going to have to go through the extra steps to create an iMovie project, assemble the clips into a movie within that project, export to a single movie file, etc.  All of that just to get a simple import done....

 

Is there a way to use iMovie to just do an import from the DV tape to a single DV file on my hard disk?  Or, do I have to find another piece of software to do this?

 

Any input would be greatly appreciated because I have about twenty DV tapes sitting on my desk and I need an easy way to import all of this stuff to archive it...

 

Thanks,

John

Posted on Oct 4, 2013 6:36 PM

by thesurreyfriends,Solvedanswer
thesurreyfriends thesurreyfriends
Level 3 (838 points)
A:

JohnNY123

First off, nothing is wrong in what you are seeing.

Yes it is interlacing and DV is interlaced.

 

No matter what you use to capture your DV ( i.e. iMovie HD6, 9 ,11, Final Cut Pro 6 , 7 or X or QT7PRO ) what you would see would be the same as what you are seeing now.

 

You may want to view another clip in which you can see faster movement across the screen, the faster the better to see those" lines".

I think you will see something with QT Player but it seems to me to be de-interlaced, the lines blurr together.

 

View your clip in QT7Pro and click on Window at top. Select Show Movie Properties. Click on Video Track       ( make it blue) and then on Visual settings. Now play around with Deinterlace or Single Field  in bottom right hand corner and see changes to the 'Lines" If you select Deinterlace in 7 you see the same as viewing in QT player (10) .

When you close out you can save these changes.

If you open clip in VLC select Video at top and select Deinterlace to ON and then select Deinterlace Mode to Bob or others  to suit.

This may provide you with what you want to see.

If you ever want to put your video onto DVD then I would suggest that you do not Deinterlace your source footage.

As you are wanting to archive this DV then do not change anything permanently ( above not included) as I am not sure if you will  be able to return it to it's original interlaced state.

Posted on Feb 3, 2014 6:41 AM

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JohnNY123

Q: Import DV video from camcorder tape to a single DV file?

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  • by JohnNY123,

    JohnNY123 JohnNY123 Jan 31, 2014 7:04 PM in response to Johnny O
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 31, 2014 7:04 PM in response to Johnny O

    Hi everyone...

     

    Search the internet with just the right combination of keywords and you'll eventually find what you need.  I was able to answer my question above about the lack of instructions to do the capture in QT7Pro.

     

    Using this link:  http://www.ezxchanges.com/page/ezhelp/qt7pro_cap

     

    ....I was able to understand how to import/capture a dv tape directly from a camcorder into QT7Pro.  It's not intuitive to do it, but it does work.  I captured a large sample of my tape and the resulting disk file was a single .mov file.  Finally!

     

    But...I'm not sure this is a straight dv-to-file capture process going on here.  My feeling is that something from a quality perspective is going wrong because the resulting .mov file from the tape capture does not appear to be the same quality as the original dv tape.  I see more lines and pixelation (for lack of a better word) in the file version than I do on the tape when I watch both in QT7Pro windows side by side.

     

    I don't see any options in QT7Pro for import quality settings except a drop-down list that lets you set the quality level to "Device Native", which should mean dv in my situation here (and it does indeed capture to a .mov file).  I don't see any options for deinterlacing or anything like that.

     

    I'm going to do a more lengthy test over the weekend and look agan at the resulting files and compare them to the tapes very closely.  Maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me tonight, but the resulting files don't look as good as the tapes.

     

    Any comments/tips with regard to what might be going on here would be appreciated.  Is the proess described at the link above supposedly capturing a perfect copy of the tape to the disk file?

     

    Thanks,

    John

  • by Johnny O,

    Johnny O Johnny O Feb 1, 2014 5:04 PM in response to JohnNY123
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Feb 1, 2014 5:04 PM in response to JohnNY123

    JohnNY123,  Try right-clicking on each file and the combined file.  Scroll down and "get info" for each.  Check under "More Info" and reference the first two variables, Dimensions and Codecs.  This should give you a clue how QT is importing and the combining of files.  


  • by Pieter_from_Ehv,

    Pieter_from_Ehv Pieter_from_Ehv Feb 1, 2014 11:50 PM in response to JohnNY123
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Feb 1, 2014 11:50 PM in response to JohnNY123

    To obtain even more detailed info of your movie, open it in the (free) MediaInfo program. The default view shows the top-level details (resolution, framerate, codec) but when you select "Text View" you'll get to see much more detailed information.

    http://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo/Download/Mac_OS

  • by JohnNY123,

    JohnNY123 JohnNY123 Feb 2, 2014 9:44 AM in response to Johnny O
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 2, 2014 9:44 AM in response to Johnny O

    Hi Johnny O and everyone...

     

    I captured another video sample from my dv tape into QT7Pro and this is what I get when I do 'Get Info' on the .mov file on my Mac:

     

    Dimensions:     720x480

    Codecs:     Linear PCM, DV/DVCPRO - NTSC, Timecode

    Color profile:     SD (6-1-6)

    Duration:     01:53

    Audio channels:     2

    Encoding software:     Mac OS X 10.9.1 (13B42)

     

    Below is a sceenshot of this file while paused when playing back on my computer and you can clearly see the problem, which is all the lines in the video (I don't know the correct video term for this...are they "scan lines"?).  When I pause the original tape in this same spot there are no lines like this nor are there any lines during tape playback.

     

    Additionally, when playing both back side by side, there are lines like this througout the whole captured version (especially when the subject is moving), but the tape looks fine.

     

    I tried playing the captured file back using the latest version of VLC with deinterlace turned on, and it made no difference.  The lines were still there.  The audio is fine.

     

    Just for the heck of it, I then tried exporting the .mov file from QT7Pro as a DVStream with 'Interlaced' turned on and also tried making another version with 'Progressive' turned on.  Both files showed the same problem below.....lines.  Audio in both export files is fine.

     

    Anyone have any ideas why these lines are showing up?  And is it a problem with capture or playback?

     

    Thanks,

    John

    Screen Shot 2014-02-02 at 12.32.04 PM.png

  • by JohnNY123,

    JohnNY123 JohnNY123 Feb 2, 2014 10:34 AM in response to JohnNY123
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 2, 2014 10:34 AM in response to JohnNY123

    Go figure....

     

    The file with the lines mentioned in my post above plays fine in regular QuickTime Player.  I just navigated to the .mov file in Finder and opened it with QuickTime Player.  Looks fine. No lines.

     

    But the same file plays back in QT7Pro and VLC with the lines like they appear in my screenshot in the post above, and I see now way to get rid of them.

     

    So at this point I don't know what's going on, and I don't know if my original tape capture into QT7Pro is "defective" in some way that's causing QT7Pro and VLC to play it back with the lines....

     

    Thoughts from anyone?

     

    John

  • by Bengt Wärleby,

    Bengt Wärleby Bengt Wärleby Feb 2, 2014 11:36 AM in response to JohnNY123
    Level 6 (19,450 points)
    Feb 2, 2014 11:36 AM in response to JohnNY123

    Hi JohnNY123

     

    The lines You see in the picture is (in my opinion) due to interlacing.

     

    Material most probably from miniDV tape Camera or from Analog source as VHS/Video-8/Hi-8 or alike.

     

    Interlacing is the way old CRT-TVs were able to Show You the picture by first drawing lines 1, 3, 5 etc till at bottom then start with lines 2, 4, 6 etc. Due to the slight timing problem - things that moved were not in the same place during these two drawings of he screen. This is perfectly OK if they are played as they are recorded.

     

    BUT if they play Even first - or if the clip is reversed (and this is not corrected in the back-motion process) - this is just the result one get's.

     

    So I would take out the Video Sequence and change it with one of these two applications

    • MPEG Streamclip.app (free from Internet) - or rather

    • JES_Deinterlacer (also free)

     

    And then all will be well.

     

    Yours Bengt W

  • by JohnNY123,

    JohnNY123 JohnNY123 Feb 2, 2014 11:51 AM in response to Bengt Wärleby
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 2, 2014 11:51 AM in response to Bengt Wärleby

    Hi Bengt...

     

    Thanks for your quick reply. 

     

    Question #1:  Do you have any idea as to why the .mov file plays with no lines in QuickTime Player but the same .mov file shows lines in QuickTime Player 7 Pro and VLC Player? 

     

    In particular, I'm concerned that it doesn't work in VLC because I want to use these files in VLC for a few things....so having them play there with lines is a problem for me that I want to find a solution to.

     

    Question #2:  What do you mean by "...take out the Video Sequence"?

     

    Question #3:  Do you think the source .mov file has these lines in it?  Or is this something occurring on playback?

     

    Thanks,

    John

  • by thesurreyfriends,Solvedanswer

    thesurreyfriends thesurreyfriends Feb 3, 2014 6:41 AM in response to JohnNY123
    Level 3 (838 points)
    Feb 3, 2014 6:41 AM in response to JohnNY123

    JohnNY123

    First off, nothing is wrong in what you are seeing.

    Yes it is interlacing and DV is interlaced.

     

    No matter what you use to capture your DV ( i.e. iMovie HD6, 9 ,11, Final Cut Pro 6 , 7 or X or QT7PRO ) what you would see would be the same as what you are seeing now.

     

    You may want to view another clip in which you can see faster movement across the screen, the faster the better to see those" lines".

    I think you will see something with QT Player but it seems to me to be de-interlaced, the lines blurr together.

     

    View your clip in QT7Pro and click on Window at top. Select Show Movie Properties. Click on Video Track       ( make it blue) and then on Visual settings. Now play around with Deinterlace or Single Field  in bottom right hand corner and see changes to the 'Lines" If you select Deinterlace in 7 you see the same as viewing in QT player (10) .

    When you close out you can save these changes.

    If you open clip in VLC select Video at top and select Deinterlace to ON and then select Deinterlace Mode to Bob or others  to suit.

    This may provide you with what you want to see.

    If you ever want to put your video onto DVD then I would suggest that you do not Deinterlace your source footage.

    As you are wanting to archive this DV then do not change anything permanently ( above not included) as I am not sure if you will  be able to return it to it's original interlaced state.

  • by Bengt Wärleby,

    Bengt Wärleby Bengt Wärleby Feb 3, 2014 9:45 AM in response to thesurreyfriends
    Level 6 (19,450 points)
    Feb 3, 2014 9:45 AM in response to thesurreyfriends

    Hopefully You are right.

     

    But I've been in the situation when Pictures are not played ODD first - But Even first.

     

    Barely anyone will stand to view it.

     

    YES even the big Broadcasting houses - makes this error from time to time - especially in News and amateur materials - when it goes to quick to be carefully chequed first - prior to real SEND.

     

    If You see this - especially when things in the picture moves. Then You need to put the material into a Video-editing application that handles Interlaced video.

     

    Cut out the faulty material.

     

    Change it to Odd first.

     

    Put it back.

     

    I've done this several times - to me it occurs most typically - when playing a sequence back-wards.

     

    Yours Bengt W

  • by JohnNY123,

    JohnNY123 JohnNY123 Feb 4, 2014 7:12 AM in response to thesurreyfriends
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 4, 2014 7:12 AM in response to thesurreyfriends

    @thesurreyfriends

     

    OK, now we're onto something!  I went into QT7 as you said and checked on the 'Single Field' option and that completely removes the lines during playback.  'Deinterlace' also removes the lines but checking 'Single Field' seems to provide better quality.  This was great to see!  Thank you!

     

    Question:  None of the deinterlace options in VLC get rid of the lines and I see no equivalent option in VLC 2.0.7 for 'Single Field' playback.  Do you have any idea as to why VLC deinterlacing can't get rid of the lines, but QT7 deinterlacing does?  There are so many deinterlace options in VLC, I figured one of them would have worked....

     

    What I'm concluding from this entire discussion thread in summary is the following:

     

    1. In QT7 Pro, using the File -> New Movie Recording function and configuring the Quality setting in that panel to 'Device Native' will capture a full quality exact duplicate of the camcorder tape to the file on the computer.  Is this correct?

    2. The file format of my Sony camcorder is dv and that's an interlaced file format, so having these lines in the resulting captured file on the computer is "normal".  Is this correct?

    3. If I want to capture these tapes to computer in full original quality (video and audio) for archiving purposes (which I do), then I should capture the tapes in their original interlaced format and leave them that way.  This way the copy is an exact duplicate of the original for archiving, but if I want to do something like getting rid of interlace lines during playback then I can use a software solution with deinerlacing/single field processing upon playback instead of changing the source file permanently.  Is this correct?

     

    If the answers to the above three questions are 'yes', then I think I've found my tape-to-computer video archiving solution to make full quality backups of all these dv format tapes that I have here. 

     

    Please let me know what you think about 1-3 above, and then I can hopefully get on with this archiving project! 

     

    Thanks,

    John

  • by thesurreyfriends,

    thesurreyfriends thesurreyfriends Feb 4, 2014 8:52 AM in response to JohnNY123
    Level 3 (838 points)
    Feb 4, 2014 8:52 AM in response to JohnNY123

    " Question:  None of the deinterlace options in VLC get rid of the lines and I see no equivalent option in VLC 2.0.7 for 'Single Field' playback."

    I have VLC 2.1.2

     

    Did you select Deinterlace to ON before selecting Deinterlace Mode? None of the options under Deinterlace Mode take effect with Deinterlace set to OFF.

     

    I tried this the other day to check result just before my reply on Feb 3 and Selecting Bob in Deinterlace Mode gave similar effect as selecting  Single Field in QT7. I would have thought your VLC 2.0.7 would produce the same.

     

    Question 1 above

    Yes, to the best of my knowledge , this is correct.

     

    Q2

    Yes correct

     

    Q3

    then I can use a software solution with deinerlacing/single field processing upon playback instead of changing the source file permanently.

    Yes the switching back and forth of Deinterlace and Single Field in QT7 Pro is not a permanent change.

    I would suggest however that if you wish to use these files somewhere else then, just to be safe, switch back the Deinterlace and Single Field to the unchecked position i.e. no  tick in these boxes.

     

    Would be interested to know if you can get what you want from Deinterlace Mode in VLC , check again making sure Deinterlace is set to ON.

    Good Luck

  • by JohnNY123,

    JohnNY123 JohnNY123 Feb 4, 2014 9:29 AM in response to thesurreyfriends
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 4, 2014 9:29 AM in response to thesurreyfriends

    @thesurreyfriends

     

    Yes, the Deinterlace option was 'On' and then I stepped through each type one by one trying them all, and none of them came close to getting rid of the lines.

     

    Interestingly, when I check for updates within the VLC app itself, it only updates me to version 2.0.9.  However, the VLC website currently lists the most recent available version as 2.1.2.

     

    Maybe there's something wrong with my 2.0.9 version causing it not to deinterlace properly.  I'm going to delete it and download/install v2.1.2 and re-test.  I will post results.

  • by JohnNY123,

    JohnNY123 JohnNY123 Feb 4, 2014 11:46 AM in response to JohnNY123
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 4, 2014 11:46 AM in response to JohnNY123

    @thesurreyfriends

     

    I installed VLC 2.1.2 and the deinteracing function in that version worked much better on my test file.  Each type gave a slightly different result with the 'Bob' and 'Yadif 2' settings probably being the best....but none of them are as good as checking 'Single Field' in QT7.

     

    Unfortunately, VLC 2.1.2 plays back with horrible choppiness on my Mac, to the point of not being usable (but at least I could see the deinterlacing was working).  This choppiness seems to be a well documented problem with VLC 2.1.2 in the online forums so I'm not alone on that one.  I deleted it and re-installed 2.0.9, but that version's deinterlacing is not working on my files at all.  I will try earlier VLC versions to see if I can find one that works...

     

    But this VLC version discussion is a total side topic to the original thread.  To get back to that...

     

    Your answer above from Feb 3, 2014 6:41 AM combined with the other posts in this thread got me to where I need to be, with a viable way to capture dv camcorder tapes to my computer in their original quality for archiving purposes. 

     

    Thank you for your help!

  • by JohnNY123,

    JohnNY123 JohnNY123 Feb 4, 2014 12:21 PM in response to JohnNY123
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 4, 2014 12:21 PM in response to JohnNY123

    As an aside, I installed multiple older copies of VLC and none of them deinterlace this .mov file effectively.  I can't get rid of the interlace lines....I don't know why.

     

    With the new VLC 2.1.2, the deinterlacing works but the video playback as previously mentioned is far too choppy to use.  2.1.2 has bugs that need to be fixed before I can consider VLC an overall solution to my playback needs...I'll try the next 2.1.x version to see if they fix it.

     

    For now, I'll stick with knowing that I have good digital copies of my dv camcorder tapes and I'll play back using QT7 Pro with the 'Single Field' option checked.

  • by thesurreyfriends,

    thesurreyfriends thesurreyfriends Feb 5, 2014 1:38 AM in response to JohnNY123
    Level 3 (838 points)
    Feb 5, 2014 1:38 AM in response to JohnNY123

    Good to hear.

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